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On the 28^th of May the second excursion from international students of the BTU Cottbus to the UFZ took place. During their visit, the students get to know the UFZ in general, and also get the possibility to meet scientists at the UFZ. The excursion is a continuation of the idea do foster exchange between the UFZ and students from BTU Cottbus. It originated in the module “Analysis and Modelling of Human-Environmental Systems” that Birgit und Gunnar teach at the BTU Cottbus. The visiting students were not only from this course, but generally from the Master's program "Environmental and Resource Management" or PhD students in this field at the BTU Cottbus.

The excursion started with a guided tour around the UFZ campus and was followed up by a presentation about the EE-Monitor, a web application that maps all renewable energy plants in Germany and assesses their environmental compatibility. This research is done at the German Biomass Research Centre, which is also located at the campus.

After having lunch in the canteen and enjoying the sunny weather, Daniel Kaping from the UFZ graduate school HIGRADE gave a talk about scientific pathways for internationals. Since many international students attended the excursion, the talk was concluded with a discussion on challenges, possibilities and things to know when aiming to start a PhD in Germany. Especially the possibility of doing a doctorate at a non-university research institution – such as the UFZ – in cooperation with a university were discussed.

The day was completed by short input talks from scientists from the UFZ, where also Julia, Gunnar and Kaja presented their work. After the talks, the students had the opportunity to have discussion in small groups regarding the different projects. During the discussions the students asked many interested questions but also mentioned shortcomings they saw in representing the various complex socio-economic issues. Those comments were a great starting point to discuss how the process of modelling works, where you have to “start small” and reduce the complexity first. It also showed the differing point of views, depending on the background of the people. For instance, Kaja had an interesting discussion about fertilizer usage in agriculture with one of the students who formerly worked in fertilizer production and Julia got several questions about the impact of markets and how one could “trick” such a system as well.

Overall, the excursion was a nice possibility to have an exchange with the students and on the other way to give insights into the work at the UFZ and non-university research institutions in general.